1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image record/playback apparatus comprising a motion-picture camera which contains a recording medium and a playback device from which the camera can be removed and which is designed to reproduce images from the recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known various systems each comprising a playback device used as an adapter and a video camera electrically connected to the playback device and containing a roll of video tape used as a recording medium. Among these systems is, for example, the 8-mm video tape recorder (VTR) manufactured by Polaroid, Inc.
The video camera of this system incorporates a video-tape driving mechanism, a photographing lens and video-signal processing circuit, and contains a roll of video tape. It has no circuit for reproducing images from the video tape. The playback device of the system has an auxiliary video playback circuit. Thus, in order to reproduce the images from the video tape, the video camera is connected by a connector to the auxiliary video playback circuit built in the playback device. Once the camera is connected to the playback device, power can be supplied to the video-tape driving mechanism, so that the mechanism may drive the video tape.
The operating mode of the video camera can be switched during playback operation in accordance with a mode switching signal supplied from the playback device to the video camera. The operation of the camera is initiated and terminated by operating a button switch provided on the playback device.
To record images on the video tape, the video camera is disconnected from the playback device and then operated. To reproduce the images from the tape, the camera is connected to the playback device and the playback device is operated. The video camera is a very expensive component. Were it be lost, stolen or damaged, the owner of the system would suffer from a great economical loss. In the business of renting video cameras, clerks must comply complex no-life insurance formalities for the system. There has been a great demand for a video camera which is as inexpensive, small and light as is possible.